Abstract
In March 1947, an historic alliance treaty was sealed between Britain and France. Indeed, it conveyed for the former a dramatic shift in its traditionally cautious and reserved foreign policy towards continental Europe in general and France in particular. The Entente Cordiale of 1904 had already shown a slight rapprochement between the two countries but the treaty of Dunkirk of 1947 represented unmistakably the biggest commitment ever made by Britain in time of peace vis-a-vis a continental neighbor till then.
Considering the "at least historically symbolic" importance of this Franco-British alliance, several questions arise:
What were the motives of both the French and the British for allying themselves with each other in March 1947? To what extent does the Treaty of Dunkirk bind France and Great Britain to assist each other and on what conditions? How successful did this alliance turn out to be? To answer these questions, we will, in the first part, tackle the historic context in which the treaty of Dunkirk took place, the motivations on the two sides behind this treaty and also the evolution of the positions of both France and Britain during the period of negotiation (I). Then in the second part we will evaluate to what extent the text met the expectations of each of the two parties and the outcomes it finally resulted in (II)
